Joe Francis says he doesn't feel bad for women filmed on “Girls Gone Wild” because 'they victimized me'

Peacock's new docuseries Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story builds an argument that the notorious exploitation empire played a fundamental role in shaping the culture we inhabit today. However, while the docuseries explores how the world may have changed because of Girls Gone Wild, it also shows how little its despotic founder Joe Francis has changed since it all fell apart.

Francis sat down with the journalist Scaachi Koul for his first in-person interview in a decade for the docuseries, though only consented to audio recording. When asked if he "feels bad" for the underage girls plied with alcohol and pressured by his cameramen to film nude scenes, Francis alleges, "No, because I don't believe they were victimized. They victimized me."

Francis is referring specifically to a judgement made in 2008 regarding a 2003 incident in which Girls Gone Wild crew filmed several women posing topless and engaging in sexual acts during spring break in Panama City, Florida. All four of the women turned out to be underage. After they reported the incident to local police, local officials put together a wide-ranging RICO case against Francis and his company that snowballed for years before eventually landing on misdemeanor child abuse and prostitution charges.

Francis pled no contest, but had previously pled guilty to similar charges, and would go on to face many more like them in the future.

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When Koul reminded Francis that the women at the center of the 2008 case "were pretty young," too young to be legally held accountable for their actions in fact, he shot back alleging, "No, they were 17, just shy of 18. They were the ones that victimized us. I believe, we all believe, that they were put up by the Panama City police, and it was all an operation. So I believe that was quite orchestrated. I walked into a f---ing snake pit, okay?"

Francis now lives in exile in Mexico due to an active warrant issued for his arrest in 2014. Several crew members from Girls Gone Wild's heyday express remorse for their part in promulgating the Francis method of infiltrating spring break towns and exploiting young, drunk women in the docuseries. But not Francis himself.

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When asked about the lasting impact of the series, Francis proudly postulated that "it loosened everything up. I think it just made for a so much more fun generation, I think it created the ability to have, obviously, the Kardashians, and it did so much more. More, everything, more for society, for life."

Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story is currently streaming on Peacock.

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